UT students do the Harlem Shake | News

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The viral video sensation the "Harlem Shake" has been taking the web by storm, and University of Tennessee students were eager to get in on the action.

Organizer Isabel Tipton said after seeing the internet trend they decided UT should have a shake of their own.

"We made a Facebook event and we expected maybe 60, 100 people if we were lucky to show up, and then out of nowhere it just grew and 500 people said they were going to come," she said. "I really love this campus because everybody just comes together so quickly and it was the sort of thing that didn't really take a lot of planning. You just told everybody to come and dress up crazy and dance and I thought it would be kind of a cool, campus bonding thing."

Not all 500 Facebook fans showed up, but over 200 students arrived in front of Ayers Hall on campus Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. fully dressed in costumes of all sorts, ready to dance.

"I went out, bought a mask, got a UT flag to rep our school! It's kind of a competition between schools, so I think we beat them!" said Mitchell Poytress, a UT student and one of the front row participants. He added that even though the rain was putting a damper on the temperature, it wasn't putting an end to the dancing. "It's a little cold, but hey, UT spirit-- rain won't stop us!" Poytress said.

The dance began with Smokey, the UT mascot, decked out in an orange robe dancing alone in front of Ayers. The crew did a few takes, timing it by playing the song through a megaphone.

Once Smokey's part was finished Tipton and the film crew invited the rest of the party to join in. After giving everyone instructions, Tipton yelled, "Start dancing!" and the group went crazy. With no music to dance to the group flailed wildy to cheering and yelling for two takes while bystanders on the hill gathered to watch the spectacle.

After the second take it was a wrap, and the video was cut and placed on Youtube for all the internet to enjoy. If you'd like to see the final product, you can watch it on YouTube:UTK Harlem Shake.